INSCRIBED IN RUSSIAN: ‘TO PAUL SCHOFIELD - HAMLET WITH RESPECT TO TALENT’ Moscow Theatres

Folio sized volume bound in cream buckram, browning along the top edge of the flyleaf, below which is written in Russian script by the book’s author Victor Komisarzhevsky: ‘To Paul Scofield - Hamlet who is so remembered and loved by Moscow, loved “how forty thousand brother could not.” With Respect to talent, V. Komisarzhevskii July 22, 1960.’ Very good jacket.

Paul Scofield was a leading British stage actor of the post World War II period and his Hamlet as directed by Peter Brook was among the longest running and most celebrated on the London stage of the era before his unprecedented tour behind the Iron Curtain. Scofield won his Academy Award for his portrayal of Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons but in the inscription to this book, a landmark in Shakespearian diplomacy is duly recognised.